Plants evergreen trees to 10-20(-25) m tall, with wide open crowns and erect branches; bark very flaky, silvery grey, thin; young branches smooth, olive green to yellow-green, glabrous. Needlesin bundles of 3, 6-10 cm long, spreading, stiff, 3-sided, glossy green on the utside, inner faces with blue-green stomatal lines, sheaths falling in the first year. Cones 10-18 cm long, 9-11 cm wide when open; cone scales 4-5 cm long; apophyses reflexed, wrinkled; umbos with incurved bases; seeds 17-23 mm long, 5-7 mm wide, with a thin shell and rudimentary wing.
Pinus gerardiana grows in the Himalayas from Afghanistan through Pakistan to western China. Its large, thin shelled and essentially wingless seeds are often called "pine nuts" and both edible and valuable.
Sources:
Nasir, E. and Y.J. Nasir. (1987). Pinaceae in E. Nasir and S.I. Ali (eds),Flora of Pakistan.
Wikipedia (2020). Pinus gerardiana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_gerardiana Accessed 12 Feb 2020